


a sky full of stars

by koralinadean



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Childhood Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, Nostalgia, Romantic Friendship, Sleepy Cuddles, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 10:17:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17865434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koralinadean/pseuds/koralinadean
Summary: After getting into a regretful fight, it seems to only be night skies and nostalgia that can get Chase and Gert back together again. Lying under a starry night, Gert and Chase are taken back to the days of eighth grade astronomy reminiscing on how simple life used to be.





	a sky full of stars

Chase doesn’t sleep.

 

Not anymore, anyways. With all that was going on within the confines of their stupendously large makeshift home, Chase couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten a good night’s rest.

 

Molly had picked up a dangerous affinity for heroism, Karolina and Alex made a habit of sneaking out of the hostel at suspiciously strange hours of the day, Old Lace had developed an annoying obsession over Chase’s old boots, and Nico was...well...Nico.

 

The pressures of survival among a group of stubborn and emotionally inept teenagers weighed on Chase. He was starting to question his own value to the team, and it didn’t help that his own girlfriend’s insecurities were beginning to reflect on him.

 

Chase was aware of how bad Gert’s anxiety could get, but he never thought to imagine the jarring realities of it. The brain-lighting, heavy mood swings, and anxious tics Gert exhibited made Chase feel utterly helpless.

 

If he had tried to help her retrieve her meds, he was sure that the Yorkes would be waiting for them, ready to reclaim their daughter. If he tried to help Gert get through her awful symptoms, he knew he’d fuck up somehow by saying the wrong thing, further making Gert more upset.

 

 _Coach Alphona’s breathing techniques..._ God, what was he thinking? He hated himself for trying to oversimplify the complexities of Gert’s anxiety into a simple lacrosse method.

 

On this account, Chase spent the majority of the day holed up in the hostel garage, attempting to improve the technology in his fistigons. Since their earlier fight, the two had tactfully tried avoiding each other. He and Gert were on weird terms, not exactly speaking to each other, mostly because Chase didn’t even know _what_ to say to her.

 

Chase was almost as good at putting things together as he was breaking things apart. Even if there wasn’t much stability in his newfound relationship, at least he could depend on the intricacies of fixing his military-grade gloves.

 

When Chase finally makes the reluctant decision to go to sleep, he walks into their shared room, surprised to find Gert asleep on their bed.

 

Gert’s body is sprayed out, her arms hugging his pillow as her light snores become a hum that follows the rhythm of a ticking clock.

 

Chase studied his sleeping girlfriend. She almost feigned peace - tiredness overtaking her. That was another one of Gert’s symptoms - her restlessness battled her fatigue.

 

Regardless, Chase was glad at least one of them could get some sleep.

 

Gert’s mouth hangs slightly open as her fingers gripped tighter around Chase’s pillow, her unease increased and the sound of her snoring became more prominent. Careful not to wake her, Chase carefully placed the fistigons on a nearby bedside table. His caution around her mirrored the current status of their relationship - he felt like he was walking on tip toes around Gert, trying very hard not to do or say the things that further irritated Gert’s anxiety.  

 

It was for this reason why Chase decides not to go to sleep. He didn’t want to risk waking Gert up with his movement, and, as much as his body told him otherwise, he wasn’t quite ready to call an end to the night.

 

His head quirked up towards the window that sat in the middle of their room, and he knows where to go. Without thinking, Chase grabbed a blanket and headed towards the stillness of the night.

 

Outside, it’s just hills and stars. Lot’s of them.

 

The sharp visibility of the night stars made Chase suck in his breath as he laid the blanket down on the rocky steep ground. If being a runaway had any perks, being away from civilization and getting the full experience of nature was definitely one of them.

 

Chase had stargazed many times before. In fact, he was quite experienced at it.

 

Though he couldn’t name specific stars or quite understood the extensive science behind astrology, he had a familiarity with the constellations that showed their presence every time he’d sneak up to his parent’s roof. Being there, as a form of escapism, reminded him of his dad’s abuse and how the rooftop was the one place that his dad couldn’t find him. It was the one place Chase could get out of Victor’s way, cooling off from his father’s wrath.

 

As if the stars had a calming effect on him, for the first time in a while, Chase felt like he could breathe.

  


 

 

It doesn’t take long for Gert to find Chase.

 

He’s sitting on a blanket outside, brown eyes transfixed on the stars above as if he had a longing to be elsewhere. 

 

Gert hated to divert his attention, but she does it anyway.  For a moment, she just observes him in the background before taking a stride forward, making her presence known.

 

“Can I join you?” Her voice is in a whisper so low, that if it wasn’t for the dead of night, he probably wouldn’t have heard her.

 

Chase’s head whipped around towards her direction. His hair is a curly mess and the lines under his eyes have gotten deeper. If Gert wasn’t so tired, she would have probably chastised him for the lack of sleep he allowed himself.

 

“Yeah, yeah of course,” Chase responded.

 

Chase’s warm eyes fell on Gert, eyeing her body. Suddenly, she’s conscious of the fact that she’s still wearing his _2016 lacrosse state championship_ shirt as an oversized sleep tee. Her cheeks turn pink when she sees Chase smirk. Stealing his clothes probably wasn't a good look on her, considering the fight they had gotten into earlier.

 

But she wasn’t mad at him - she couldn't be, considering how everything had played out. He was trying his best, and if it wasn’t for her lack of medication, she’d have been able to see that.

 

Chase scooted over, allowing enough space for Gert to rest down on the blanket next to him. She takes his invitation, settling in beside him, grateful for the heat that radiates off his body.

 

It’s awkward at first. They sit in silence, both using their fixation on the night sky as an excuse to avoid looking at one another.  In the midst of all the chaos, everything seems to stand still.

 

A few moments continue to pass before Chase turns his body towards her, entwining his warm hands with her cold ones. “I’m sorry for earlier,” he stuttered. “I fucked up.”

 

Gert shook her head reclusively before Chase could utter another word. “Don’t apologize.”

 

“But-”

 

Gert let go of Chase’s hand and began to pick the fluff off the white blanket beneath them. “I...overreacted,” Gert admits, “You were only trying to help.”

 

Chase searched her eyes with concern, not quite believing her. Still, the day had gone by and Gert was ready to drop their fight and move on. Having a silly vendetta against her boyfriend of two weeks wasn’t doing much to improve her mental health.

 

They were both apologizing for things that were out of their control. The world seemed to be against them and their current situation wasn’t helping the state of their relationship. In a world where she was having difficulties trusting the people she loved, Gert understood why she pushed Chase away.

 

“I’ve never seen you concentrate so hard on something before,” Gert teased, a weak attempt to break the ice between them and redirect their conversation.

 

Chase seems grateful for this because his shoulders relax a little and the corners of his mouth quirk up.

 

“Yeah, the only star I can name is the little dipper.”

 

Gert scrunched up her nose. “That’s a constellation, not a star,” her tone rang in a matter-of-fact way. She hated correcting him, but she wasn’t going to let her boyfriend keep thinking that the little dipper was a celestial body.

 

Chase let out a loose laugh, running his hands through his messy hair. “Wouldn’t know,“ he exasperated,  “I spent the majority of our astronomy projects doing something else.”

 

 _Eighth grade astronomy_ , Gert remembered. More specifically, she remembered the day Mr. Robert had paired the two of them - Chase Stein and Gertrude Yorkes, their eighth grade selves trying to figure out the wonders of the universe together. It was during their shared time together in middle school that they had solidified a strong friendship within each other.

 

But as they grew up, they became oil and water - unable to mix together easily. Like the natural tendency of oil and water to separate, the pressures of growing up and being high schoolers tore the very fabric of Gert and Chase’s relationship.

 

At that time, Chase was an obnoxious pre-teen undergoing the sexual awakening of an eighth grade boy, and Gert could admit that she was also quite insufferable at that age -  but they worked anyway. Gert shared her uneaten fruit snacks with him, and Chase repaid her by telling funny stories of his solo adventures on the nights Janet and Victor were stupid enough to leave him alone at home. Gert gave him the answers to their astronomy homework on the days Chase forgot to do it, and in return, Chase insisted that he'd finally teach Gert how to ride bike. Their relationship had always been a give and take.

 

Though she’d grow up to hate the idea of it, she’d even dare to have called him her best friend.

 

“Yeah, sexting Eiffel,” Gert scoffed. She hated that bitterness stung her tone.

 

“No, looking at you.”

 

Chase’s words make Gert freeze. Her mouth falls slightly open before she catches herself, pursing her lips into a hard line.

 

Gert knew Chase claimed he had always seen her but she couldn’t possibly be led to believe that his attraction to her went as far back as the eighth grade. If this was the case, it meant that Chase had liked Gert for a _really_ long time and was apparently _very_ good at masking his feelings.

 

 _Three years_...had it really taken them that long to get together?

 

As if sensing her growing disbelief, Chase frowned. “You used my dad’s telescope to concentrate on the stars, but I was focused on you,” He began to imitate Gert’s nervous tics, fidgeting with the drawstrings of his sweatpants. “Whenever you’d turn your attention to me, I just tricked you into thinking I was playing a game on my phone or something.”

 

Chase’s nose crinkled. “I don’t even like _Candy Crush,_ ” a flush began to creep up on his face. “But I didn’t want you to know that I liked you.”

 

Gert doesn’t react, looking up at the dark horizon. As if like old times, she could feel Chase’s eyes studying her, attempting to find a window into her thoughts.

 

“You and Eiffel were together though, right?” Gert couldn’t help but focus on the fact that there must have been _something_ between the two of them during the time that Chase didn’t speak to her. “You dated, I mean.”

 

“Friends with benefits,” Chase corrected her.

 

Gert let out a huff, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She didn’t expect anything less from Chase.

 

“We were two bored teenagers who ran around the same circles. It was bound to happen.”

 

Gert didn’t understand why Chase felt the need to defend himself. She wasn’t even sure why she cared so much about something that happened before her time. Still, she couldn’t help the feeling of jealousy that arose when the thought of Chase and Eiffel together seeped into her mind.

 

Despite her strong dislike towards Eiffel, Gert couldn't resent the fact that _Eiffel_ was the one had been there for Chase all those years, _not her._

 

She had been his friend and support in the moments where Gert couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as him. She had been the one Chase confided in whenever he ran into trouble with his dad, and all the while, Gert remained clueless.

 

She was more upset at herself for leaving him than she was at him for overshadowing her with a more popular group of friends.

 

“Eiffel's not that bad, you know.”

 

An incredulous look crossed Gert’s face as she realizes that Chase wasn’t joking. He had meant want he said - that Eiffel Hayes wasn’t the complete monster that Gert made her out to be.

 

Frustration almost riled up in Gert until she realized that there was a different side to Eiffel that Gert hadn't seen, and Chase was all too familiar with. Chase saw the best in people, and he most likely found the good in her.

 

“She was a total bitch to me,” Gert deflected.

 

“Only because she knew how much I liked you.”

 

This conversation was getting all too real for Gert. She was beginning to realize that the story she told - the one where the childhood best friend she had a hopeless crush on didn’t like her back - was an incorrect one. She was too wrapped up in her own interpretation of things that she forgot to consider Chase’s own side of the story.

 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” Gert confesses, letting her thoughts be known. “For you, I mean.”

 

She finds herself saying sorry a lot. Another symptom of being off her meds.

 

“Don’t apologize,” Chase softly mimicked.

 

Quickly, as if to wash her insecurities away, Chase inches closer to Gert, closing the space between them, and leans his body into her.

 

“Besides,” Chase yawns, tiredness starting to catch up on him. He smiles contently into her chest as she lifts his shirt just a little bit, allowing her enough space to run circles on his back with her forefinger.“You’re the only girl for me, Gert.”

 

She doesn’t respond, but instead allows a small smile to corner her face. He loved her then and he loves her now.

 

“Do you want to go back inside?”

 

“Not yet,” Chase admitted. His eyes flickered with longing, allowing Gert to realize that he just wanted to remain in this moment with her, for as long as the buried sun would let him.

 

For a while, the two gazed at the stars and talked constellations, pointing out new ones and revisiting the stories of old. Over the course of the night, their positions seem to change, as Gert's now nestled into Chase's arm.

 

Gradually, Gert turned more and more into Chase, her head slowly moving from his arm to his shoulder, and then from his shoulder to his chest until she’s hugging him and being held in return.

 

He holds her by the waist, gently pressing her into the softness of the blanket beneath them. His body is relaxed against hers and their closeness allows Gert to be able to hear the soft beating of his heart.

 

His gaze flickered between her eyes and onto her lips. Gert’s eyelids begin to droop, gazing upon her boyfriend wistfully. It doesn’t take long before Chase decides to close the space between them, drinking in the sight of her.

 

He tastes of honey and warmth, he’s exactly what she needs on this cold, dark night.

 

Starry words turn dreamy, and soft kisses become ever-present, and in the hours the two lay together, confessions of childhood adoration and budding infatuation resurface.

 

The day had started out rough, and they weren’t sure what tomorrow would bring, But right here and right now, together and seemingly inseparable - just as how the moon loved the sun - they knew they were going to be okay.  


**Author's Note:**

> ta daaa! a post on tumblr inspired this and i was waiting for a fic like this to be written so i just decided to do it myself :-) i had a lot of fun writing this and i hope you enjoyed!! feel free to comment or give suggestions on other chase/gert scenarios i should write out (i'm thinking of doing a deanoru/gertchase double date next).


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